Death Valley: Small Group Day Trip from Las Vegas & Dunes

4.95

(603 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We left Las Vegas before sunrise, still half-asleep, and by the time we hit that weird Alien Center (the one with the neon green sign and UFO mugs), I was awake enough to laugh at the souvenirs. Our guide—David, I think?—knew every oddball story about the place. The desert air felt sharp and dry on my skin, even inside the van. Rhyolite came next. It’s all broken concrete walls and empty windows, but somehow it felt less lonely than I expected. There’s this open-air art thing there too—giant ghostly figures in white. I tried to take a photo but honestly, it didn’t catch how strange it felt standing there with wind tugging at my shirt.

Rolling into Death Valley itself through Hell’s Gate (they really call it that), everything just stretched out forever. We stopped at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes; the sand was cool under my shoes at first but got hot fast—like stepping onto a stove if you wandered too far. Lunch was at some old-style restaurant where I ordered eggs and potatoes because I panicked at the menu (should’ve gone for pancakes). The Burned Wagons Point Memorial was right outside—our guide told us about pioneers who lost everything here. It made me quiet for a bit.

Badwater Basin is so flat and white it almost hurts your eyes. The air feels thick down there—hard to describe unless you’re standing in it. At Artist’s Palette, colors run wild across hillsides; pinks and greens that look fake until you’re right up close. Li, another guest, laughed when I tried to pronounce “Zabriskie” like a local (nope). That view from Dante’s View though—I still think about it sometimes when city life gets loud again. You can see forever up there, or at least it feels that way.